How to evaluate the movie Evil in China?

For mainland audiences devastated by domestic bad movies, domestic horror movies, a socialist genre with China characteristics, have already become the hardest hit areas of bad movies.

On the one hand, due to the force majeure of domestic policy environment and censorship, ghosts can't appear in movies, which eliminates the story reasons of most horror movies; On the other hand, domestic young directors are still in the exploration stage in the field of genre films, and they have quite high requirements on the narrative rhythm and control of production links of genre films.

Search for domestic horror movies, Douban score is basically horrible!

But despite this, the proliferation of domestic horror movies cannot be a fig leaf for those unscrupulous directors.

Just this year, a low-budget thriller "Evil in China", which was shot by a non-professional team, shined brilliantly at the first film festival, which triggered a heated discussion among film critics. The biggest feature of this film is poverty. The shooting cost is only 70 thousand yuan, of which 20 thousand is the medical expenses raised by the crew to treat the actor who broke his waist.

For the current China film market, the production cost is less than nine cents (after all, the production cost of Heart Labyrinth is 654.38+0.7 million). However, it is such a simple film, which has been praised by many film critics as "the most conscientious thriller in China" and won the artistic exploration award of the first Youth Film Festival.

Blair Witch Project is regarded as the most successful documentary style horror film.

The movie Evil in China is a typical movie? "Simulated documentary" horror film. The shooting technique of "analog documentary" once formed a trend in European and American horror movies, from the early Blair Witch Project to the series of "Cleverness: The Record of Ghosts", and then to the series of "Death Video" in Spain.

In these films, the directors are mostly newcomers. They use the method of pretending to be real videos to reduce the budget, and at the same time create a horrible atmosphere to help the audience be there. The unexpected and depressing environment in the documentary is very suitable for horror film directors to practice.

The series "Clever: A Ghost" used this routine to scare many viewers.

For the new director, trying to shoot in a simulated documentary can undoubtedly reduce the budget cost and make a real and credible sense of terror in a limited space.

The film begins with mockumentary's photography. The picture begins with a willow tree swaying with the wind, and the wind is whistling, revealing a kind of gloom and depression. Then there is an interview, followed by a shaking hand-held lens photography. The audience discussed the superstitious culture in rural areas from the first perspective of two college students.

Evil is in the middle.

China's evil story is actually very simple. Two young people wanted to shoot a documentary about the custom of "returning home" in Linyi, Shandong Province, so they found a famous local "Daxian" and wanted to follow up and shoot the returning home of Daxian all the time.

The so-called "Hui people" means "upper body ghosts." Whenever someone is possessed by evil spirits, the villagers will find the "witch" Wang Po, and ask her to invite a "paper man" to perform a "resurrection" ceremony (so-called "exorcism").

"Witch" Wang Po

Before the movie starts? 20 minutes, completely documentary style, followed the perspective of the two leading actors, visited the rural fortune-telling culture, and everything was normal. The two protagonists find the legendary "witch" Wang Po and her husband and "agent" Liu Shu. The two sides introduced how to start this "career" like chatting at home.

However, after receiving an "invitation" call, they took the bus and came to a single-family building that was so remote that there was no cell phone signal. A brother and sister live here alone. Brother Daqing told them that since the bizarre death of other family members, my sister has been "evil".

The two decided to film the exorcism process, but it was during the filming that things became more and more strange, and some seemingly supernatural forces gradually pushed everyone to a desperate situation. ...

In fact, the story of the whole movie is actually very conventional. Judging from the plot alone, it is basically the type of "die or die" that is common in horror movies. Not to mention the simple props: the scariest dolls in the film are almost all cheap dolls that can be seen everywhere in the stalls.

Seeing the stills feels inexplicably cute ~

However, the outstanding feature of China Evil is that the director Ma Kai is well versed in the narrative techniques of genre films, and the film maintains an excellent narrative rhythm from beginning to end. The director's reference and localization of the parody-based horror film (exorcism witchcraft in rural society) and the addition of photographic sound effects make the exorcism story in this rural society highly credible.

Although the film is limited by cost, the presentation effect is very simple, and even many scenes are extremely rough, this does not affect the director's attention to shooting. The film draws lessons from the shooting techniques of a large number of European and American horror films, and we can clearly see its background and the influence of James Wan horror films. The transition from hand-held photography to fixed position, lens shaking, low-angle backhand and fast-paced follow-up editing are quite mature.

Stills of "Evil in the Middle"

As a veteran horror movie fan, director Ma Kai once admitted to the media that this voyeuristic perspective in Evil was influenced by the 2007 American small-budget horror movie Clever: The Record of Ghosts. A large number of low-angle sneak shots are used to create a sense of reality, which forms a rough and gloomy sense of reality with the cold and gloomy tone of the film. The localization temperament of non-professional actors and the parody style of the film itself are natural, which is one of the reasons for the success of China Evil.

Ma Kai, the director of this film, is not from a professional background, but has been wandering for many years. He started as a grassroots extras and gradually became an assistant director. A large number of long-term experiences in watching thrillers have enabled him, as a director and screenwriter, to accurately control the suspense and narrative rhythm of thrillers.

Although domestic horror films have become the hardest hit areas of bad films at present, the success of Evil Aliens proves that horror films are not just a pot of radio and television. How to tell a good story is something that the director should consider clearly.

Although it is a grassroots team, the production is not in a hurry.

The highlight of this film lies in the last 20 minutes. The rhythm of the whole story is almost breathless, and all the fears that have been suppressed in the whole movie burst out at the end, which is quite infectious.

The scene of Evil is still very scary ~

On the other hand, the Excellence of evil only exists in the works of a group of young directors or most domestic horror film directors. In fact, it is far from the classic foreign thriller.

As far as the film itself is concerned, there are still huge defects. The film's weak writing level, rough ending (it is said that the script was temporarily modified because of the actor's injury), the lengthy narration in the first half, the oversimplification of the whole story (according to the Basic Law, the film is not haunted) and the heroine's acting skills are really embarrassing, all of which are important factors affecting the film's effect.

Finally, the film is said to have been bought by Penguin Pictures for millions. It is said that it will be shown in the cinema next year. I wish I could go to the cinema and feel the real fear brought by movies.

This article was posted on the official account of WeChat, Mi Ying Movie (ID: ID:miying 1994).